Distaff

A spinning tool that holds a bundle of unspun fiber, traditionally flax or wool, wound around it and tied on with ribbon or string, keeping the fiber untangled and ready as a spinner draws it off to spin. Its name comes from a Low German word for a bunch of flax joined to the word staff. The traditional Western distaff is a rod roughly three feet long, held tucked under the spinner's arm while the other hand draws fiber and spins it on a handheld spindle, a method that predates the spinning wheel; a shorter version is mounted directly on a spinning wheel near the bobbin. A distinct Russian form is L-shaped, the spinner sitting on a flat horizontal board while drawing fiber from a vertical, often carved and painted, board standing up from it. The word also became a figure of speech for the maternal side of a family line, set against the paternal spear side, and, in horse racing, for a race restricted to fillies and mares.